Corey Dickerson hit a baseball last month in Florida that might still be airborne. The slugger Rockies manager Walt Weiss once said “can hit underwater” somehow found a stranger place to hit than Coors Field.

“It’s weird there,” said Dickerson, the former Rockies left fielder who was sent to the Tampa Bay Rays in Colorado’s biggest offseason trade. Dickerson returned to Denver on Monday night for the first time in an opposing team’s uniform.

The shot he hit at Tropicana Field on June 14, against the Seattle Mariners, was measured at more than 440 feet. At Coors Field, it was a second-deck shot, at minimum. In Tampa, his home run hit a catwalk above the right field scoreboard and never came down.

“It’s still going,” he said. “It would have hit the back of the building.”

“I’m disappointed in what I’ve done so far. But I can build on it,” he said.

McGee missed time with a knee injury and is still trying to find his place in the Rockies bullpen. He has a 6.04 ERA. And the Rockies replaced Dickerson with defensive-minded free agent Gerardo Parra, who is recovering from an ankle injury.

“I guess you’re not supposed to have favorites — but he’s one of my favorites,” Weiss said of Dickerson.

Dickerson, with the American League’s Rays playing in a large National League park and against a left-handed pitcher, did not start Monday night.

“Dickey is a great hitter,” Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado said. “He’s very lethal. He can change the game with one swing of the bat.”

Parra slowed. Parra, who was carted off Coors Field on June 14 with a high left ankle sprain, felt soreness in his foot during a workout in Atlanta on Saturday. So the Rockies are easing off his rehab.

“He didn’t have a great day, the second game in Atlanta,” Weiss said. “He didn’t have a setback, I want to make that clear. His ankle was a little stiff that second day, so we backed off a little bit. That’s his body telling him he needs to slow down.”

Looking Ahead…

Coming out of the all-star break, the Rockies kept their rotation in the same order that ended the first half. But it gave them a coincidental benefit. Chatwood, their ace through the first 3 1-2 months despite coming off Tommy John surgery, will be the last arm called on in the first cycle through the rotation. “We wanted Chatty on the back end, just to give him a little more rest,” Colorado manager Walt Weiss said. In his previous start, July 10 against the Phillies, Chatwood was hit hard, allowing four runs on eight hits in five innings of a loss. Nick Groke, The Denver Post

covers baseball and the Rockies and all sorts of sports. He started working at The Denver Post while in high school before graduating from the University of Colorado. Reach him at ngroke@denverpost.com